The only way to discover the Lillie Road U8 results this season is to watch the game.

The only way to discover the Lillie Road U8 results this season is to watch the games.

The FA's initiative to prevent competitive league football for U8s was introduced this season, and the Lillie Road 5-a-side league has fallen into line with an initiative from on high designed to promote skilful football, rather than the crash-and-welly that often produces results at any cost.

Teams in the league based at the Lillie Road recreation ground in Fulham continue to compete against each other, but the results are not officially recorded.

Chairman Bill Cox said: "We're caught between a rock and a hard place.

"If we don't follow the FA rules we will become unaffiliated, and we need the funding from our FA affiliation to hire the pitches from the council - it's an impossible situation."

The change was trumpeted by no less a person than Sir Trevor Brooking in the hope that emphasis on technique at this level will keep kids in the game longer.

But Cox admits some Lillie Road parents and coaches railed against the idea of non-recorded leagues because, as he explained it, youngsters are being prepared for the older age groups, as seen in the results side bar (right).

"For children it's just a game, but to parents it's often more than that - it's horrifying to see some of the parents screaming and shouting on the touchline," said Cox.

And although there is nothing to stop a rogue parent keeping an unofficial league table, Cox reckons it would take a huge amount of co-ordination from different teams to do so.

When the initiative was announced, Cox was worried it would have an adverse effect on membership, but so far so good - there are still the same eight teams that competed under the old system last season.